As we progress in our summer series, it starts to become abundantly clear: Drive-ins were popping up across Schuylkill County as quickly as they were closing.. And so often turning to the more triple of the X world before finalizing their deals..
The heyday of the whole outside movie movement had its roots in the 1950s post-war era, and it waned as air conditioned malls offered up movie theaters away from rain and foul weather…
But those little vestiges of the past that remain are immensely beautiful.. The run down signs. Overgrown landscapes..
All of the little reminders of past summer nights with open air convertible filling their autos with the open air flicker of a movie projector in the middle of a dark field..
But for every drive-in we focused on, there were others with so little information we couldn’t gather enough information to fill a story!
Some little random locations, tiny in size compared to the big ones. Theaters that can only fill less than 300 cars on a good night, tucked away in what most likely now is overgrown mountainside abysses.
So let’s light a candle and keep a solemn moment of silence for the tomb of the unknown drive-ins.
PRIMROSE
The LIVE OAKS DRIVE-IN, in Primrose, PA had its grand opening ad of Aug. 23, 1949..
A few days before, on August 17, 1949, the tiniest blurb appeared in the Pottsville REPUBLICAN updating readers about the new theater in Primrose: Just that a “local businessmen” were building it and it was progressing rapidly..
There is little history on this location.. We know that for the opener, it played HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT…
History vanishes at night, as well.
The theater appeared to go on for only a few years.. very little activity, minus advertising, exists in newspapers at the time. It would sure be amazing to hear from someone who had some firsthand or even secondhand knowledge of some stories of this little known drive-in at 1 Oaks Drive in current day Minersville..
POTTSVILLE
The Pottsville Drive-in!
The May 11 1957 Pottsville REPUBLICAN featured a page 8 story about the new screen at the Pottsville Drive-in.
Bernie Freidman bragged it up as the finest and biggest in the area *Lots of people bragged that way back then!
It actually opened in the late summer of 1949..
Businessmen Walter Schumacher and Robert Rowland were responsible for the brand new facility on the Pottsville-St. Clair boulevard. It had a restaurant, and for moms during the baby boom, a milk-warming center.
By July 1952, the Pottsville Drive-In was warning its “adults only” audience that they would blush at the latest film!
In 1960, it was sold at a sheriff sale for $200.
In today’s world, if you look behind the Ruby Tuesday’s location in Pottsville, you will find really no trace that this drive-in ever existed.
TOWER CITY
The Temple Drive In was set to open on April 2, 1955:
By 1953, in an obvious showing that its refreshments were not doing what they could to conjure up delightful evenings, the Temple Drive-In had what newspapers ads at the time labeled the 7th wonder of the world! Siamese twins! The ad said that you could learn what Daisy and Violet’s conjoined life was like, and how they made love to different husbands.. The ad asked, “Can a Siamese twin have a shy husband?” You just had to be at the Temple to find out it would seem:
The theater went under new management in 1967.
And by 1974, editorials were being written decrying the pornography being displayed at the Temple:
Before eventually closings in the 80s, a few more newspaper ads were able to be purchased showcasing the XXX Temple, such as this in 1981:
HOMETOWN
The Valley Drive-In was a one-screen theatre located along PA Route 309 just north of the Still Creek Reservoir near Hometown. It opened on May 1, 1949 with Randolph Scott in “Coroner’s Creek”.. The drive-in was also affiliated with a large swimming pool that was known as the Valley Pool, which was located on the same property immediately north of the movie screen.
The Drive in theatre was constructed in 1948 and ran its last show at the end of the 1987 season. In 1977, the wooden screen-tower was ripped down by a hurricane on Palm Sunday!
The swimming pool was added in 1954 and outlasted the theatre by one year closing after the 1988 season. . The stand and projection booth are still up and have been used as an electronics shop and now as a maintenance building. and the markee was converted to an electronic digital billboard. The pool was filled in..
BARNESVILLE
Welcome to the COUNTRY-VIEW DRIVE-IN..
In 1956 the Country View Drive-In was owned by Allied Circuit. Located in Lakewood, PA the Country View Drive-In held 350 cars.
By 1962, it was going adult only..
It was closed in 1966.
It used to be Rt. 45 but it was changed to Rt. 54.
The drive-in was about 2 miles east of Interstate 81 outside of Mahanoy City and near where Lakewood Park used to exist…
There are still speaker poles and ramp marker poles between the trees that have grown. Someone built a home to the rear of the property. The address was 1100 Barnesville Dr. Barnesville PA 18215..
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